BenAris

@JWarral90921 Investment into ukraine will start with vulture funds like this. That’s the way of the world

@bneeditor I mean, is that the kind of investment the Ukrainian side can brag about and desire then? Sounds a lot like exploitation of a crisis, rather than investing into manufacturing or anything similar - what Ukrainians actually want, investment to rebuild their country.

Once Russia's largest Western investor, VR Capital has refocused its investment on Ukraine allocating 20% of AUM to UKR. Richard Deitz, founder of the VR Capital has now become one of the largest investors in strategic Ukrainian companies. I know Dietz from his Renaissance Capital days. He is a hard arse investor, but very good at distressed markets. After Russia he made a mint in Argentina. Now he is focusing on UKR. That prob means there is very good money to be made there. The fund estimates the total volume of UKR investment assets at $5-8bn already committed. But UKR is playing with the big boys now. It desperately needs this investment, but it is not going to be easy and if you owe VR money, they will make you pay as much as you can, as Ukrzaliznytsia (railway) has already found out to its cost.

Today, May 20, 2026, marks the beginning of the eighth year of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s five-year presidential term — the very term he once promised would be his only one. He also vowed to resign if even a single corrupt official were found in his inner circle. He promised to do everything possible so that Ukrainians would not cry. Ukrainians are no longer crying — they are sobbing. Every single day. Today, I want to ask forgiveness for my choice in 2019 - a choice that helped lead Ukraine into this bloody tragedy. Forgive me. I was wrong. The clown did not hack the system. He took control of it, fortified it, and made it more aggressive and more oppressive.

Five Italians passionate about Indian dance, Svamini Atmananda Giri, Ms. Martina Meenakshi Argada, Ms. Lucrezia Maniscotti, Ms. Valeria Vespaziani, Ms. Rosella Fanelli performed ‘Trigalbandi’, which included Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam and Kathak. It is wonderful to see Indian dance forms drawing global interest.

Today is Day of the Bee Seems trivial, but these are what makes everything grow

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Putin: Russia and China are building out transport links, including a trans-Arctic corridor that would connect them without going anywhere near Western-controlled routes. While the West writes sanctions, these two are building roads.

Moscow and Beijing will continue to advocate common positions at international forums such as the G20 and the World Trade Organization, Russian President Vladimir Putin said following Russia-China talks: vk.cc/cXYZPm

Kazakhstan has declared itself the historical successor to the Golden Horde, with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev describing the medieval empire as a foundational state of the “Great Steppe civilisation.” Speaking at a forum in Astana, Tokayev said the Ulus of Jochi once stretched across more than 6 million square kilometres and contained around 100 cities. He also called for deeper study of the Horde’s political and economic system. Tokayev added that the name of Kazakhstan’s currency, the tenge, derives from the Horde-era word “dang,” which may also be the root of the Russian word for money: dengi.

🚨Şi-Putin zirvesinin en kritik başlığı enerji güvenliği ve dolayısı ile "Power of Siberia-2" olacak. 💢Yaklaşık 2600-4000 km uzunluğunda olması planlanan boru hattının Rusya'nın Arktik kuşağındaki Yamal sahalarından Moğolistan üzerinden Çin'in kuzeyine gaz taşıması hedefleniyor. 💢Hedef Yıllık 50 milyar m³ kapasite. 💢Hedef tarih: 2030. Tam kapasiteye ulaşırsa Rusya'nın Çin gaz ithalatındaki payını yaklaşık %10'dan %20'ye çıkarabilir. 💢Ancak bazı pürüzler var. Rusya'nın geçen yıl Çin'e gaz satış ortalaması 249 dolar. 💢Çin ise Rusya'nın içerde yaptığı fiyatlandırmadan almak istiyor: Yaklaşık 120 Dolar/1000 m³. 💢Rusya boru hattında standart %80'lik doluluk isterken Çin yüzde 50 diyor. Atıl kalma riski var. 💢İlk boru hattını Gazprom tek başına finanse etmişti ama burda bu durum belirsiz. 💢Bu arada Çin, dünyanın en büyük LNG ithalatçısı. Power of Siberia 2’den gelecek gaz ve Rusya’dan gelen diğer iki boru hattındaki akışların artması, Çin’in yılda 40 milyon metrik tondan fazla LNG ihtiyacının yerini alabilir. 💢Fakat Çin, Orta Asya ülkelerinden de gaz alabildiği için anlaşmayı kendi şartlarında yapmak için bastıracaktır. 💢Örneğin Lavrov'un nisandaki Pekin ziyareti sırasında Çin Başbakan Yardımcısı Ding Xuexiang Türkmenistan'la gaz işbirliğini genişleten anlaşmaları imzalıyordu.

#Russia's oil and gas revenue seen up 39% y/y in May thanks to Iran war #oott reuters.com/business/energ…

EU governments are discussing whether former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi or ex-chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel could represent the bloc in potential negotiations with Vladimir Putin. Latest with @henryjfoy @christopherjm @rmilnenordic ft.com/content/1dc0f6…

#BREAKING Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a declaration establishing a multipolar world and a new model of international relations.

Yet another striking illustration of just how ideologically rigid the West has become compared to what we used to be. This was the obituary The Economist published for Mao in 1976 - at the height of the Cold War. Read this part: "In the final reckoning Mao must be accepted as one of history's great achievers: for devising a peasant-centred revolutionary strategy which enabled China's Communist party to seize power, against Marx's prescriptions, from bases in the countryside; for directing the transformation of China from a feudal society wracked by war and bled by corruption, into a unified egalitarian state where nobody starves; and for reviving national pride and confidence so that China could, in Mao's words, 'stand up' among the great power." Show this text to any Economist "journalists" today - without telling them it's from their own paper - and they'd reply: surely it's "CCP propaganda" 😏 Yes, incredible as it may sound, there used to be a time when Western journalists could assess a geopolitical rival honestly and respectfully without being accused of being a traitor. And this honesty was in no small part a key factor why the West won the Cold War. Today we call honest assessment "propaganda," and we harass, smear, and blacklist people for it. And we're puzzled why the West is in steep decline. Truth matters.

If I remember correctly, it took over a decade to agree on the price of gas coming through power of Siberia one. China and Russia may be a good friends, but that doesn’t mean Beijing is gonna go lights on Moscow when it comes to haggling over gas prices. China is not in a rush but Moscow is.

I think we’re talking about things like corporate bonds. The point of the railway investment was he bought the debts but the railway has revenue and so in theory can service this debt. The trick is to make them pay the cash out. The point of investing during the war is that obviously this debt is very distressed a.k.a. cheap The game becomes buying ridiculously cheap debt and getting it serviced out of those revenues. That’s not uneasy thing to do but VR Capital is expert at this has made it shareholders billions of dollars as a result in Russia in Argentina an oil investment in Turkmenistan that they made work and now in Ukraine. VR Capital actually been working in Ukraine for several years already. They’re well aware of how hard it is to work there but they have taken out money and made profits.

@bneeditor Ben, everyone with an ounce of brains knows that "investing" into Ukraine before the war's conclusion is a pure propaganda. We don't even know whether Ukrainian statehood would be preserved or not, what investment are we talking about?

#RadioMoskva Putin goes to Beijing Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked off a two-day visit to Beijing on May 19, arriving with a high-powered delegation containing top officials and leading businessmen. The trip follows less than a week after US President Donald Trump made the same journey, also with a high power delegation of leading US CEOs, but was forced to eat humble pieby Chinese President Xi Jinping and came away with almost nothing to show for the meeting. The visit by Putin is clearly political theatre and designed as a slap in the face for the Trump administration. It was Moscow and Beijing’s “no limits” partnership in action and very publicly on display. Xi used his meeting with Trump to warn him in very explicit terms that if he tries to interfere with BEijings campaign to reunite with Taiwan that China would go to war with America – there is no other way of understanding Xi’s comments about the “Thucydides Trap” comment. The US president was on bended knee trying to get China to help with some of his myriad problems- ending the war in Iran at the top of the list. Not only did he come away with nothing other than one scaled down Boeing airplane purchase order, since then embarrassing row has broken out between Beijing and Washington over what exactly was agreed. Trump, prone to bombast, was boasting of all of the amazing deals he cut only to be undermined by the Chinese who said pretty much nothing was agreed. Contrast that with Putin's arrival with a who's who of top political figures ranging from the Social Welfare Ministry (to talk about education) through to the Ministries of Finance and Energy. In addition, a whole bevy of top CEO's were on the plane - notably Igor Sechin from Rosneft, Alexei Miller, chief executive of Gazprom, and Leonid Mikhelson, chairman of Novatek - the three leading oil and gas producers in Russia. But several other leading businessmen were there like Oleg Deripaska who is invested into aluminium and energy amongst other things.Putin’s close friend Gennady Timchenko was also there, who Vedomostidubbed the “state contract king” a few years ago. The relationship that's emerging between Russia and China has been castigated as lopsided, however to me it looks increasingly like a synergy. Russia has everything that China needs- largely energy and raw materials - and China has growing geopolitical clout as an increasingly important player that can face down the White House with impunity. Xi is not stupid and the Chinese policy is not one of dominance but of fruitful cooperation. There's no reason why he wouldn't cozy up to the Kremlin provided the two of them stick to their mutual “noninterference in internal politics” policy which is the cornerstone of the emerging multipolar order. Many have portrayed the Russo- China relationship as lackey and master, however I think that is to misunderstand the way the world has changed and frame the relationship in the terms we prefer as “leaders of the freeworld.” It's better thought as a patchwork world of overlapping relationships where national interests is the defining principle. In the West we still pretend that it's our rules-based international values order that should unite everyone. However, if you look around Europe and the recent elections, such as those in Hungary, even there countries are turning in on themselves, primarily concerned with the well-being of the people rather than promoting the EU project. It's noticeable that the new Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar has chosen to go to Poland before he made the trip to Brussels as Poland is now superseding Germany as the economic powerhouse in Europe. Hungarian prosperity to a large extent will rest on good relations with Poland and screw LGBT+ rights. The same is visible in the relations between India, China and Russia, none of which are natural allies – in the Indo-China relation, exactly the opposite is true – yet their leaders have become increasingly pragmatic and prepared to make compromises. By contrast, Trump runs his foreign policy with bombast and bombs. He makes boasts that he cannot fulfil. Europe suffers from the same sickness with both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas spewing empty old school rhetoric about the need to “uphold the international order” and “increase the pressure on Russia” to allow Ukraine to “eventually” follow its “irreversible” European path. But look past these empty words and you find that Nato will never let Ukraine join, and the EU may let Ukraine join but not for at least a decade and even then in a watered down version due to the size of its agricultural sector. As for the “pressure” on Russia: European companies yet again bought every drop of Russian LNG they could get their hands on in April, despite a pledge to ban imports of Russian gas completely by January 1. The contradictions of the need to fix the increasingly dysfunctional European economy and the rhetorical stance that brought most of Europe’s leading parties to power is tearing Europe’s political parties apart and will most likely lead to a collapse of the old order in the coming years as the nationalistic popularists take over. There are many examples, but I highlight comments by Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) yesterday, who said when they take power she will make peace with Russia, move to deepen relations with China, and protect Europe from the US. This is no longer a fringe agenda. It is moving rapidly into the mainstream and marks the end of the Pax Americanaand the start of a new era that will be marked by chaos to begin with until the new geopolitical order emerges. It’s tempting to assume that China will lead this order, but I think it will be a lot more complicated process than just swapping one boss for another. This article originally appeared in Editor’s Picks, a free daily email digest of bne IntelliNews’ best stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up for free here. to989.infusionsoft.com/app/form/edito… open.substack.com/pub/bneeditor/…

The United Kingdom has imposed a ban on uranium imports from Russia, according to amended trade restrictions published by the UK Department for Business and Trade: vk.cc/cXYbGf

👨‍💻👨‍🏭🏃‍♂️Boys are fleeing Ukraine before they turn 18, trying to avoid becoming cannon fodder. Senior-year public school classes are half-empty now, as teenage boys leave in groups to study abroad. University programs that traditionally attracted male students are facing a growing crisis. ‘There’s now a massive shortfall in enrollment across nearly all engineering and technical fields,’ says Mykhailo Vysotskyi, prof. of Taras Shevchenko National University. A country that once worried about brain drain is now watching an entire generation of young men quietly disappear before graduation.

⚡In the first four months of 2026, Ukrainian courts issued ❗814 corruption-related decisions — 27% fewer than the same period last year, though nearly ❗❗double pre-full-scale war levels. Strikingly, not a single person received a prison sentence; punishments were limited to fines only. Nine out of ten cases (91%) involved financial control violations — mainly problems with asset declarations, late filings, or reporting errors. Bribery cases made up just 6%, and conflicts of interest 3%. Overall, 93% of rulings were administrative. While 2025 was a record year with 4,086 decisions (including real prison terms, such as 10 years for a sergeant who stole military thermal imagers worth millions), this year’s trend shows a sharp softening in enforcement. A new law limiting data retention in the corruption registry is also now in effect. #UkraineEconomy

Russian Delegation to China (Business Negotiations) vs. U.S. Delegation to China (Business Tourism) The Russian delegation accompanying President Putin on his visit to China boasts an exceptionally large and high-profile lineup. Its members include five Deputy Prime Ministers, eight Ministers, and the heads of numerous major Russian giants across the energy, industrial, and financial sectors. This high-level composition is designed to facilitate comprehensive alignment and deepened cooperation across the entire value chain in key areas of China-Russia relations—specifically trade, investment, energy, and the development of Russia's Far East. Based on information regarding accompanying officials and briefing participants released by the Kremlin and official media outlets: The core delegation list and their respective responsibilities are as follows: 🏛️ Senior Government Officials (5 Deputy Prime Ministers, 8 Ministers) Dmitry Chernyshenko (Deputy Prime Minister): Responsible for briefing on preparations for the China-Russia Commission on Regular Meetings of Heads of Government. Denis Manturov (First Deputy Prime Minister / Deputy Prime Minister): Responsible for briefing on matters related to the China-Russia Commission on Investment Cooperation. Alexander Novak (Deputy Prime Minister): Responsible for coordinating and briefing on core China-Russia energy cooperation affairs. Tatyana Golikova (Deputy Prime Minister): Responsible for briefing on the work of the China-Russia Commission on Humanitarian Cooperation (this visit marks the launch of the "China-Russia Years of Educational Exchange"). Yury Trutnev (Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District): Responsible for briefing on cross-border development and cooperation between Russia's Far East and Baikal regions and China's Northeast region. Sergey Lavrov (Minister of Foreign Affairs): Accompanying the delegation, and—together with his Chinese counterpart—responsible for delivering a specific briefing on diplomatic policy coordination between the two nations. The other 7 Ministers: Representing key core sectors including industry, transport, finance, economic development, agriculture, energy, and aerospace (a total of 8 Ministers are accompanying the delegation). Yury Ushakov (Presidential Aide for Foreign Affairs): Responsible for coordinating the schedule of the summit meetings and facilitating the drafting of bilateral outcome documents. Russia's Top Business and State-Owned Enterprise Giants: The corporate delegation accompanying the President encompasses virtually all of Russia's core economic pillars (particularly within the energy and commodities sectors): Igor Sechin: CEO of Rosneft. Alexei Miller: CEO of Gazprom (with a primary focus on negotiations regarding the "Power of Siberia 2" pipeline). Leonid Mikhelson: Chairman of Novatek, Russia’s largest private natural gas giant. Gennady Timchenko: Co-founder of Novatek and a major shareholder in Sibur (a petrochemical giant). Alexey Likhachev: CEO of Rosatom (responsible for deepening Sino-Russian cooperation in nuclear energy technology). Yury Borisov: Head of Roscosmos (driving medium-to-long-term cooperation between China and Russia in space exploration and high technology). Andrey Guryev: Head of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers (RAFP). Eduard Davydov: General Director of Roskhim. Oleg Deripaska: A prominent Russian industrialist and a titan of the aluminum and energy sectors. The delegation also includes: Several Russian regional governors—drawn primarily from border regions adjacent to China and the Far Eastern Federal District—aimed at fostering direct economic, trade, and logistics linkages at the local level. Rectors of renowned universities and heads of major news media outlets: Responsible for implementing bilateral cooperation initiatives in the fields of culture, education, and public opinion.